(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

That was the theme for Sunday night’s Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner in Jefferson County — As Jeffco Goes … So Goes Colorado! It has been proven to be a pretty accurate statement over the years.

Used to be, Jefferson County was a pretty Republican stronghold. No, it wasn’t like El Paso County or even Douglas County, but a county-wide elected Democrat was pretty rare — just ask Senator Joan Fitz-Gerald, who had a lonely position as Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder just a few years ago. Now, Democrats joke about those days. In years past, listing the elected Democratic officials in attendance at an Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner was pretty quick — maybe a minute or so. Sunday night, it easily took twenty minutes to name off the elected Democrats in attendance!

I had rushed over to the event at the Sheraton Denver West directly from arriving at DIA from Kansas City, as did State Chair Pat Waak. When we arrived, we were greeted by a packed room full of familiar faces and great auction items (no matter how hard I tried, I was outbid on the pair of items we were trying to get). I was blessed to be seating at Congressman Perlmutter’s campaign’s table, so I was able to meet some of the great workers behind the tireless Congressman’s campaign. Of particular note was that I got to see Julie DeWoody, who did such a wonderful job leading the Colorado Democratic Party to victory in 2004 as the State Executive Director (when I was Secretary of the State Party). Julie spent the 2006 cycle working for the DCCC in fundraising, but is now back in the Centennial State working for Congressman Perlmutter. Welcome back, Julie!

The highlight of the evening was the keynote speaker, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin serves as the “at-large” Member of Congress for the entire state of South Dakota. In a “red” state, she has been able to work hard and win as a smart Democrat. Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin talked about the need for the Democratic Party not to abdicate the concept of “values” to the Republican Party any longer. She did a wonderful job talking about how our Party stands for the values that make America great — values like caring for your neighbor, values like treating everybody fairly, regardless of their differences, and values like helping those less fortunate than us.

After the keynote address, the 2007 Eleanor Award was announced; the winners were a pair of tireless volunteers in Jefferson County, Carmah Lawler and Kathy Glass. Carmah and Kathy couldn’t attend (they were on a long-planned cruise in the Mediterranean), but they did accept the award via a truly moving video response.

Tomorrow night, I’m staying home again to attend Drinking Liberally here in Canon City, before I head off to Durango on Sunday to attend their annual picnic at the Isgar Ranch. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Or should I say weeks? Wednesday and Thursday of last week, Margaret Atencio, Christine Pokrandt and I went down to Pagosa Springs, where we were hosted at Stage Under the Stars. First Lady, Jeannie Ritter, held a conversation with about 30 local Democrats on the work she is doing. She had met that morning with members of the Southern Ute and listened as they outlined the challenges for mental health in their area. We are so lucky to have her as our First Lady and really committed to this long overlooked area.

On Friday, Dan Slater, Sherry Jackson and I were off to the Association of State Democratic Chairs meeting. Many of you will have seen Dan’s notes from his blog, so I won’t repeat anything he has covered. My only comment will be that we are seeing new chairs from Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Arizona and other states. They are excited about coming to Denver for the convention. Most important, the exchange of ideas about the challenges of fundraising and organizing is an essential part of these meetings.

Last night I flew back and changed my jacket, shoes and purse so I could attend the Jefferson County Eleanor Roosevelt dinner. Dick Barkey is doing a superb job as chair, and the turnout was grand. Introducing the elected officials took quite a while. And Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin was a terrific speaker for the event.

Today, I attended the Aurora Economic Development Corporation’s A-list luncheon with former President Bill Clinton as the speaker. He later attended a fundraiser for Senator Clinton’s presidential campaign. His remarks at each event were similar.

Jim Lyons introduced the President. Pres. Clinton paid tribute to Jim saying that the resolution of conflicts recently in Northern Ireland were the result of Jim’s early work there.

He went on to say that the best term to describe what is happening today is “interdependence.” We face three huge problems: Persistent inequality, in income, education and health care; what we are doing is not sustainable, resulting in climate change and depletion of natural resources; and Insecurity, as we are seeing in terrorism, religious/political/social conflicts, avian flu, etc. We need to get away from the idea that our differences are more importatnt than our common humanity or what we have in common.

I was particularly pleased that he talked about population growth, since this was my field for many years. In 43 years the global population will grow from 6.5 billion to 9 billion. With that growth will be an increased need to look at an unequal, unsustainable and unsecure world.

Pat

(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

This afternoon, at the Fall Meeting of the Association of State Democratic Chairs, we continued to have some very productive training and sessions for the Chairs, Vice Chairs, and Executive Directors of the various state parties here in Kansas City / Overland Park, KS. After posting the last message to DemNotes, I rushed downstairs back int our meetings, where we learned more about how to effectively run coordinated campaigns. It’s a little bit harder to run coordinated campaigns (indeed, in past years, we’ve been prohibited from using that phrase, “coordinated campaigns”) in Colorado with our more restrictive campaign finance rules, but we tend to still run plenty of field efforts with buy-in from our statewide races, such as the US Senate race and the Presidential campaign.

After that discussion, we heard more about planning as a state party for the Convention in Denver. The panel for this presentation featured a good variety — a state chair, a pair of long-time executive directors, and two folks from the DNCC (Cameron Moody, who directs operations for the DNCC; and Sky Gallegos, who is the Deputy CEO for Intergovernmental Relations for the DNCC). There was a lot of discussion of how to prepare delegates for what a convention will be like, especially new delegates, and how state parties need to properly plan to spend a week-plus in Denver. (Advice from the Utah E.D.? Drink lots of water the week beforehand.)

We ended the evening with a bus ride across the state line to the Truman Library, in Independence, Missouri. I’m a big fan of Harry Truman — as some of you know, I occasionally perform as Harry Truman for county parties. So it was quite a blessing to be treated to this wonderful event — the Library was opened exclusively for the ASDC crowd, and we had the place to ourselves. Ironically, the Missouri Democratic Party sponsored our lunch today in Overland Park, Kansas (where the speaker was the Lt. Governor of Kansas), while the Kansas Democratic Party sponsored our reception at the Truman Library in Missouri!

In any event, both of the state parties involved in co-hosting this ASDC meeting have been wonderful to their guests. Midwestern hospitality is alive and well, and this has been a very productive week for your Colorado Democratic Party leadership here this weekend. We head back tomorrow afternoon; hopefully, I’ll get back in time to attend the Jefferson County Dems’ annual Eleanor Roosevelt dinner tomorrow night at the Sheraton Denver West. If you’d like more information, you can visit the JeffCo Dems’ website at:
http://www.jeffcodems.org

Maybe I’ll see you there!

(Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

As I mentioned in my last post, we’re here in Kansas City / Overland Park, KS for the Fall meeting of the Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC). This meeting is really a one-day only meeting, going from early this morning until tonight.

So far, it has been spectacular. I always enjoy ASDC meetings more than the DNC meetings because the ASDC meetings seem to be a lot more focused on the nuts and bolts of winning elections and local party organization. Today has been no different.

My day began an hour earlier than Pat’s and Sherry’s, as the various state vice chairs all met in an informal session to talk about what each of us do and the challenges each of us face. What was evident was that the position of vice chair differs across the nation, and how each of us handle our roles as vice chairs is so incredibly diverse. Some focus on fundraising, others focus on organizing within constituency groups. I indicated that my focus was on finding needs and niches, such as helping jump-start the convention bid, or helping plan for the state assembly and training caucus-goers, and meeting those needs (in addition to the work I do communicating with activists through such venues as DemNotes).

The best line of the morning? From Idaho’s wonderful Vice Chair, Jeannie Buell: “We’re really loving politics right now in Idaho!”

The morning was all about the future of our Party. After some mundane business, including some relatively minor changes to the ASDC bylaws, we heard from David Boundy, who is the Political Director for the DNC. Essentially, his presentation boiled down to the mission statement for the 50-State Strategy: Organize Everywhere, Count Everything, and Question Assumptions.

He pointed out that when you consider all of our key races — Presidential battleground states, Senate races, House races, and close legislative chambers, we already have “targets” in 46 states — which makes the 50-state strategy so critical.

Some of what David discussed has to do with the future organizing plans for the DNC, so I don’t want to go into too much detail on a public forum like this, but I will say this: everything you know about winning elections from a national level is going to change in the next year. The DNC is going through a pretty amazing transformation, and you’ll see that transformation in the next 6-8 months. The way people get their information is changing dramatically, and the Party is going to change dramatically to meet the challenges of those changes.

The other major speaker of the morning was Simon Rosenberg, who is the President of the New Democrat Network (www.ndn.org). He gave a simply stunning presentation that pinpointed the changing political and media landscapes of this decade, and how we need to change to meet those changes. He spent a lot of time discussing how the “old media” were simply so much less relevant, and how we needed to find new avenues to reach our voters in 2008 and beyond.

He also talked about the changing electorate in America. Our population is not only becoming more southern and western; it is not only becoming more suburban and exurban — it is becoming more Hispanic. This is where one of our biggest opportunities exist. By focusing so much time and effort on the immigration issue, the GOP in 2006 completely unraveled any inroads they had made with Hispanic voters, who came back to the Democratic Party in droves. By running ads that made Hispanic immigrants out to be the equivalent of terrorists, the Republicans have handed us a huge favor. By completely refusing to participate in a Presidential debate on Univision (the Democratic version — in Spanish — was the highest-rated show in the United State for that week), the Republicans have ceded Hispanic voters to Democrats.

And by doing so, they may have also ceded Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and — yes — Colorado. If that’s the case, that’s enough electoral votes to win the Presidency (when added to our base electoral votes) alone. Tom Tancredo must simply be shaking right now.

Finally, we had lunch with another amazing speaker — Kansas Lieutenant Governor Mark Parkinson. Lt. Gov. Parkinson, until just recently, was a Republican. Not only was he a Republican, but he was actually the Chair of the Kansas Republican Party. But the extreme right wing of his Party high-jacked this moderate’s Republican Party in Kansas, and he became a Democrat. Not just any Democrat, but Lt. Gov. Parkinson is a PROUD Democrat today.

He represents a huge shift in Kansas politics. For the 2006 cycle, Kansas saw 10 high-level defections of moderate Republicans — Republicans who believe in things like education, fiscal responsibility, reproductive choice, and a fair workplace for workers — to the Democratic Party. Already, two more principled leaders in Kansas who have seen their party leave them have become Democrats for the 2008 cycle. With only a 28% Democratic registration, Kansans are electing Democrats across the state to lead them, and turning out the right-wingers who have embarrassed the state (remember the Kansas state senator who said that things started going downhill in this country when women got the vote, and then promptly ran for Secretary of State? And she was a woman herself?).

I’m headed down now for the afternoon sessions on the coordinated campaign and plans for the National Convention. I’ll try to write more later.

(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com) Pat, Sherry and I are in Kansas City tonight for the Fall meeting of the Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC). Well, we’re actually in Overland Park, Kansas, but Kansas City sounds slightly more sexy than Overland Park (and there aren’t as many songs about Overland Park as Kansas City).

 Tonight (Friday), Pat and I attended the meeting of the ASDC Executive Committee at the home of former Kansas State Chair (and former South Dakota Chair) Dennis Langley. It was easily the nicest home I’ve ever been in — indeed, the first that had an actual “grotto”. We were joined by the dynamic Democratic Governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius. The meeting itself was another opportunity to get together and compare notes on how things are going across the country. Party chairs and vice chairs are getting excited about coming to Denver next summer for the National Convention, and it is great to see the energy coming from the State Party leaders about their delegations’ trips to Denver next year.

Tomorrow is the primary day for meetings. The full ASDC will be sitting down with the DNC’s Political Director, David Boundy, and discussing the plans for utilizing the State Partnership Program (a/k/a the “50-State Strategy”) within the election campaigns of 2008. We’ll also be discussing coordinated campaigns and preparations by the DNC for a successful convention in Denver. Tomorrow night, we’ll attend a reception at the Truman Library across the river in Independence, Missouri. I’ll write more tomorrow (or Sunday) when we get a chance.

(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

Last night, I was in Denver again for a meeting of the Denver 2008 Host Committee’s Volunteer Committee (that’s a long name!). I am one of the co-chairs of that committee, along with Landri Taylor and Cec Ortiz, who are both wonderful people with which to work. The Committee is continuing to work to ensure that we plan for every possible contingent to identify and utilize the 7,000 to 10,000 volunteers that will be needed to put together the most memorable Democratic Convention in the history of our Party.

If you haven’t yet signed up to volunteer, you can do so on the State Party’s website (www.coloradodems.org), or at the Denver 2008 website (www.denverconvention2008.com). If you have signed up, you should have received about four different e-mails from the Host Committee over the past few months providing short updates. If you have signed up, but haven’t received those e-mails, you may want to check your spam folder and junk e-mail settings to be certain they aren’t being mis-identified as spam. You also may want to try signing up again online.

In the next couple of months, you will be able to set your volunteer profile online, and that will help us identify where we can use you as a volunteer as things heat up closer to next summer. So, when you get the e-mail about your online profile, be sure to go online and get that done — hopefully, before the end of October.

Right now, though, the Host Committee is in need for more college interns. If you, or somebody you know, is interested in being an intern for the Host Committee / DNCC, please send an e-mail to the Host Committee with your resume or qualifications to info@denverconvention2008.com - be sure and put “Intern” in the subject line, so your e-mail doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of e-mails received by the Host Committee daily.

Also, the Host Committee is looking for volunteers who can donate a full day or more a week on a regular basis to helping out at the Host Committee offices. Send an e-mail to the address in the prior paragraph with the subject line “Full-Day Volunteer” with your availability.

Thanks again to the thousands of you who have already signed up to volunteer!

———————————

Saturday, I was also in Denver to help out with the “Colorado Caucus Convention” put on by the Obama campaign in Colorado. Over 500 people attended, most of whom had never been involved in politics before.

I promised that DemNotes was not going to become an Obama-centered experience, so I want to focus on how training folks with one campaign has got a lot of people thinking about the February 5 caucuses and how preparation for those meetings is so critical, all across this state.

Many of you who read DemNotes are county party officers. For you, it is certainly not too early to start thinking about February 5. It’s easy to pass it off as being too far away because it is in 2008, but it really is right around the corner. In fact, the deadline to register as a Democrat to participate in the caucuses is only December 5. It is important to start thinking about where you want to hold precinct caucuses in your county — and it is also important to remember that February 5 promises to be very different than prior caucus nights.

Presidential campaigns all across the board are already planning on how to turn out their supporters to caucus night on February 5. It is not unreasonable to think about how your county will handle a flood of possibly three or four times (or more!) the normal caucus attendance on caucus night. Where you’ve put six or seven precincts in a gymnasium or school cafeteria, you may only be able to put two or three. This requires a lot of planning. How do you as a county party also encourage attendance? How do you bring out new voters? Consider putting caucuses on college campuses or closer to the neighborhoods of each precinct. Every person that turns out to caucus is exponentially more likely to be your party volunteer in September and October, when we need them to win this state for our nominee and Mark Udall.

It’s also not too early to thing about scheduling caucus training for December and January (or earlier!). I’m more than happy to come to any county in this state to do a PowerPoint presentation about how to run a caucus smoothly (and, no, I won’t be pushing for any candidate in that presentation). The precinct caucus is the first step to organizing a successful precinct and county party, and the more county parties are prepared for caucus night, the easier things will be for you and your candidates in the fall of 2008.

Because 2008 is going to be a tough year, and precinct-by-precinct organization will win the day for us in November.

Please join Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC)
CEO Leah Daughtry and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper

as they address the questions and opportunities before Denver-area residents
and the local business community around the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The forum will mark the first in a series of “Community Conversations”
held throughout the Rocky Mountain region in the lead-up to
the 2008 Convention in Denver.

 Wednesday, September 12, 2007
11:00AM
Walnut Foundry
3002 Walnut Street
Denver
Map: http://tinyurl.com/ytcyvk

 Free parking - all are welcome.

 Please RSVP to rsvp@demconvention.com or 720-DNC-2008.
Space is limited; RSVPs will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

 Directions:
Take I-25 to the Auraria campus exit. Take Market to 30th.
Market becomes Walnut north of Broadway, and the Walnut Foundry
is located on the northeast corner.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of facing off Dick Wadhams on health care at the Colorado Medical Society. Although it was not a debate, it was an opportunity to present our different approaches to issues of concern held by the doctors in the state of Colorado.

I opened my presentation by saying that in the interest of transparency, I needed to point out that I am a registered nurse and a member of both the Colorado Nurses Association and the American Nurses Association. I don’t practice nursing these days. I am also a certified psychotherapist. I do not have a practice, but I use my skills every day as state party chair. That got a laugh. And I have a doctorate in theology. My only comment on that is when all else fails, there is always prayer. That got a laugh too.

The Democratic Party holds common concerns with the Colorado Medical Society on the need for universal health care. (I was in the room earlier in the day when they voted it as their top priority). I also feel that doctors and clients need to have input on what the system of delivery will be. They wanted to know if we supported SCHIP, and I pointed out that all of our Congressional representatives supported the legislation which would provide coverage for 11 million children in the U.S. They wanted to know how to get their issues into the platform and what priority health care would have. I pointed out that all of the Democratic candidates for President have health care proposals. However, I emphasized several times that they needed to get involved in the caucuses next year. And they wanted to know who would win the 2008 Senate race, and I said we would!! It was a good session, and I had great conversations with participants both before and after.

Dick Wadhams gave the Republican line. We have all heard it. He talked about tort lawyers and dissed the “Hillary” single payer plan. He defended the Republican resistance to SCHIP. He said his candidate would win. A few people talked to him after the lunch. Oh, and despite his oft cracks about the convention coming, he congratulated all of us on getting the DNC to pick Denver.

Then it was on to Granby to meet with Autumn Phillips who is the new editor of the regional newspaper in Grand County. If you recall, the newspaper office was one of the buildings bulldozed by an irate citizen. It has been rebuilt, and I got a tour of the building. The old giant printing presses were rescued and have been restored. Autumn and I discussed how we might publicize the caucuses and prepare folks for participation on Feb. 5, 2008. We will be in contact and work out the details in the next month.

My next stop was a retreat with the House Majority Caucus, who were meeting near Winter Park. It was great to have dinner and then spend an evening discussing, of all things, health care. This morning I gave a presentation on what the state party was doing, the upcoming community events for the convention and the process for selecting delegates. As with any gathering, the best part of the time there was talking with individual legislators. I am very proud of the people we have elected to represent us in the Colorado General Assembly. They did a great job this past session, and I expect no less for the coming year.

The week coming up will be no less challenging. Gov. Bill Richardson is in town this coming week to kick off his Colorado campaign. I will see him tomorrow. On Tuesday, I am co-host of a fundraising lunch for Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana and then attending a joint reception that evening with him and Gov. Ritter in support of Project New West.

Wednesday, Christine Pokrandt, Margaret Atencio and I will head down to Pagosa Springs. We will be attending a CDP fundraiser with Colorado’s First Lady, Jeannie Ritter. While most of the organizing is being done by Archuleta County, we have invited all of the SW counties in the surrounding area. We hope there is a great turnout.

We come back on Thursday in time for me to pack my bags and head for the Association of State Democratic Chairs meeting in Kansas City.

Pat Waak, Chair

Hosted by:

Chair Pat Waak, Commissioner Kathy Hartman, Kathy and Neil Boucher, Judi Butz, Julia Hicks, Ann Knollman
(and others to be announced)

 Friday, September 28, 2007

 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.

 Home of Kathy and Neil Boucher:
7354 Nile Street, Arvada, CO 80007
Map: http://tinyurl.com/2juad4

 Host $250
or
Guest $50
(Hosts may contribute $250 for themselves or commit to bring 5 guests at $50 each)

 Reserve your place online at:

 http://www.coloradodems.us/events/firstladyjeffco

 Or make check out to “Colorado Democratic Party: and mail to:
Colorado Democratic Party, 777 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204

 Or contact Christine Pokrandt at (303) 623-4762 ext. 102 or cpokrandt@coloradodems.org

The Denver 2008 Host Committee is looking for volunteer housing. While many of the volunteers for the 2008 Democratic National Convention will be from Colorado, some of those volunteers will come from outlying areas around the state. Also recruitment is going on in surrounding states. Most hotel rooms locally will be used to house state delegations, press, and others associated with the convention. If you know of someone who has extra room during next August, please contact Sondra Williams, Volunteer Coordinator at Sondra@DenverConvention2008.com or 303-534-6200.

Pat Waak